Listen to Ray Davies’ New Song ‘The Big Guy’

You can hear the song below, along with a video interview where he discusses his inspiration.

“‘The Big Guy’ is reflections on waking up in a hospital with gunshot wounds,” Davies says in the clip. “The big guys in the book [2013’s Americana] are my bodyguards, a guy called Tony and a guy called Bobby. The song is about them and what they meant to me, because I have a tendency to self-destruct on tour, like most musicians. Tony was under instructions that if I had more than two pints he could break my arm – or threaten to.”

The new album is connected to both the 2013 memoir and last year’s first AmericanaLP. “The book has got song references in it, and the songs are part of the narrative, so the trick was to get the record to stand up as a record as well as being part of a series,” Davies said previously. “I think people who like the first album understand where it’s going – album two is what happens when you get there.”

Earlier this week, Davies talked up a long-awaited Kinks reunion, although it wasn’t clear if he was joking or not. His brother Dave Davies later confirmed that, at the very least, discussions had taken place.